The Barclays: William McGirt determined after slipping into FedEx Cup playoff field on the last day

Jerry McCrea/The Star-LedgerWilliam McGirt tees off during a practice round Monday at the Plainfield Country Club in Edison, preparing for The Barclays this week.

It was nearly lunchtime when William McGirt rolled up to the front of the clubhouse at Plainfield Country Club in a dusty, super-sized Chevy Tahoe with South Carolina plates. Still unsure of where to go and what to do, McGirt stepped out and looked around for help. The first piece of business was parking his car.

“Do you valet?” he asked a volunteer.

“We do,” the man responded. “Are you a player?”

Most weeks, the retort would be enough to turn McGirt red in the face. But Monday, he smiled politely and said he was. Then he popped the trunk, pulled out his clubs, helped his wife Sarah out of the passenger’s seat and carried his golf bag to the locker room. William McGirt may be the last man to get into the FedEx Cup playoff field and have the longest odds of winning, but he’s not letting that — or a case of misinformed identity — deter him.

“It’s nice to be here, but I’ve still got a lot of work to do to keep my (PGA Tour) card,” he said in a quiet moment on the driving range Monday afternoon. “I still need to make about $450,000, so it’s nice to have this opportunity, but it doesn’t mean anything if you don’t take advantage of it.”

McGirt, a Fairmont, N.C., native, is the picture of real life on the PGA Tour. He turned pro in 2004, and spent the better part of the past six years scraping around on mini-tours and the Nationwide Tour before earning his way in through qualifying school this season.

He thought he had put himself in position to make it to The Barclays this week after the first three rounds at the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, N.C., over the weekend. He began last week two spots out of the top 125 players, the cutoff to qualify for The Barclays. But after a solid start in Greensboro, he shot an even-par 70 in Sunday’s final round, and was sick to his stomach.

After coming so close, he had put himself squarely on the bubble with more than half the day remaining.

“I thought I was dead,” the 32-year-old McGirt said. “It was totally in my control yesterday when I teed off and I didn’t get it done. Fortunately, I got some help, I guess.”

Friends texted him and said to not worry. They told him he was in, no problem. But McGirt knew better than to accept any percentage other than 100, or zero. He walked off the course, took a shower, grabbed some food for his growling stomach and waited.

“It was one of those things, you know,” he said. “How do you kill five hours? I literally ran the battery out on my phone — it was fully charged when I came off the course — that’s how much I kept checking scores. I didn’t want to do anything until (John) Mallinger was done. It was tough.”

Mallinger was the last remaining player left in the day who could have knocked him out of the field. Had he finished alone in second place, Mallinger would’ve been the last man to make the field, and ensure McGirt would take an agonizing three-hour ride back home to Boiling Springs, S.C.

Instead, McGirt got lucky. Mallinger never made a charge.

“Sitting there, when (Mallinger) was on 17, I was thinking, ‘One more shot to dodge,’” McGirt said. “I told a friend that this was much more nerve-racking than PGA Q-School. At least there you’re out on the golf course. Here, you’re just watching. You can’t do anything. I had every opportunity to get in myself and didn’t take advantage of it.”

As soon as his place at Plainfield this week was assured, McGirt and his wife threw their suitcases and bags in the back of the Tahoe and made the 9 1/2-hour drive to New Jersey. And while his copilot fell asleep for the final four hours of the trip, McGirt began to think about the tall odds that waited for him at the other end.